This invention relates to an apparatus and a process for storing and supplying bobbin formers to a textile processing machine. The device comprises a bobbin former magazine for storing a plurality of layers of bobbin formers and a bobbin removal device for receiving formers from the bobbin former magazine and for transporting the formers to a textile machine requiring the formers.
Devices are disclosed in the German Patent Publication DE-OS 2,037,826 in which a former magazine is made in form of a narrow, cuboid box. The distance between the two lateral walls of the box is such that the formers can slide down with only little clearance. At the same time they are unable to tilt. In a longitudinal slit in the bottom of the box, the upper trunk of an endless conveyor is installed and is provided with slavers at intervals. The removing front of the box is equipped at the lower end near the upper trunk of the conveyor with a discharge opening which is somewhat higher than the greatest diameter of the empty former, in the case of a conical former. The discharge opening is preceded by a discharge box. The formers pushed out by the slavers of the conveyor go over an inclined sheet metal discharge into the discharge box in which they are separated. The separation requires an expensive regulating process since it must be ascertained that the discharge box is not already filled with formers when the conveyor conveys additional formers into the discharge box. If the discharge box is completely filled with formers, there is a risk that the conveyor may damage the piled-up formers as it presses on.
It is also known from German Patent Publication DE-OS 2,506,362 that the formers are stored in a magazine so that they are already lying in an axial sense. Near the bottom of the magazine are conveyor chains which transfer the bobbin formers to a gripper. Slavers are provided on the conveyor chain to take the pres-sorted formers out of the magazine. The slavers subdivide the conveyor chain into individual compartments. The magazine is also divided into several adjoining pockets in which the formers are placed so that their axes are at a right angle to the direction of movement of the conveyor chain.
Since the pre-sorted formers are stacked one above the other, a much greater volume is required for storage than for the same number of formers in chaotic storage.
In Publication DE-OS 2,506,362 the conveyor belt is driven in impulses. To remove the formers by means of a gripper, the conveyor chain must stop at a predefined location so that the gripper may be able to remove the former from the conveyor chain.